An Empirical Study Evaluating Social Networking Continuance and Success

Social networking site (SNS) use decisions have led to major economic and social transformations worldwide. While many organizations seek to use SNSs from a strategic perspective to reach their customer, it is important to understand what makes SNSs successful in order to use them for competitive purposes. The current research evaluates the influence of the social capital theory on SNS success measures. A model was developed and empirically tested using two data samples to ensure valid and reliable results for success of SNSs. The results display the importance of social capital in SNS success followed by practitioner and academic implications.     

Persistent UAV Service: An Improved Scheduling Formulation and Prototypes of System Components

The flight duration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is limited by their battery or fuel capacity. As a consequence, the duration of missions that can be pursued by UAVs without supporting logistics is restricted. However, a system of UAVs that is supported by automated logistics structures, such as fuel service stations and orchestration algorithms, may pursue missions of conceivably indefinite duration. This may be accomplished by handing off the mission tasks to fully fueled replacement UAVs when the current fleet grows weary. The drained UAVs then seek replenishment from nearby logistics support facilities. To support the vision of a persistent fleet of UAVs pursuing missions across a field of operations, we develop an improved mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model that can serve to support the system’s efforts to orchestrate the operations of numerous UAVs, missions and logistics facilities. Further, we look toward the future implementation of such a persistent fleet outdoors and develop prototype components required for such a system. In particular, we develop and demonstrate the concerted operation of a scheduling model, UAV onboard vision-based guidance system and replenishment stations.     

WALRUS: a similarity retrieval algorithm for image databases

Approaches for content-based image querying typically extract a single signature from each image based on color, texture, or shape features. The images returned as the query result are then the ones whose signatures are closest to the signature of the query image. While efficient for simple images, such methods do not work well for complex scenes since they fail to retrieve images that match the query only partially, that is, only certain regions of the image match. This inefficiency leads to the discarding of images that may be semantically very similar to the query image since they may contain the same objects. The problem becomes even more apparent when we consider scaled or translated versions of the similar objects. We propose WALRUS (wavelet-based retrieval of user-specified scenes), a novel similarity retrieval algorithm that is robust to scaling and translation of objects within an image. WALRUS employs a novel similarity model in which each image is first decomposed into its regions and the similarity measure between a pair of images is then defined to be the fraction of the area of the two images covered by matching regions from the images. In order to extract regions for an image, WALRUS considers sliding windows of varying sizes and then clusters them based on the proximity of their signatures. An efficient dynamic programming algorithm is used to compute wavelet-based signatures for the sliding windows. Experimental results on real-life data sets corroborate the effectiveness of WALRUS'S similarity model.     

A note on the differential regulator equation for non-minimum phase linear systems with time-varying exosystems

Some control problems in practice are often formulated as a linear output regulation problem with time-varying exosystems. Although this problem has been studied recently, an explicit and constructive solution has been given only for minimum phase systems. This paper presents a solution for non-minimum phase systems whose zero dynamics is hyperbolic (or has an exponentially dichotomic split in the case of time-varying zero dynamics). The idea is inspired by the non-causal stable inversion.     

An exploratory study of radio frequency identification (RFID) adoption in the healthcare industry

This study examines the radio frequency identification (RFID) adoption decision process and proposes a model predicting the likelihood of adopting RFID within organizations in the healthcare industry. A considerable number of studies have been conducted regarding organizational information technology (IT) adoption, but the nature of the organizational IT adoption process is still not well understood. Especially, although there are a number of variables and categories that have been found empirically to be related to adoption behavior, there is little in the way of evidence to suggest the origin or motivation behind the adoption. Thus, this study investigates the underlying motivations and driving forces behind the adoption of RFID using the theory of technology-push and need-pull. In this study, an organizational RFID adoption model is proposed and empirically tested by a survey using a sample of 126 senior executives in U.S. hospitals. The model posits that three categories of factors, technology push, need pull, and presence of champions, determine the likelihood of adopting RFID within organizations. This study also found that the relationships between those three categories and the likelihood of adopting RFID are strengthened or weakened by organizational readiness.     

A new vertical‐alignment LC mode with high‐transmittance and fast‐response‐time features

Abstract— A novel pixel design for vertical‐alignment LCDs with superior transmittance has been developed. The new liquid‐crystal mode, refered to as the hole‐induced vertical‐alignment mode (Hi‐VA), uses a via hole of an organic layer on a TFT substrate to achieve multi‐domain alignment. Compared to the conventional design, the Hi‐VA mode has a transmittance of up to 135% with a contrast ratio of 2000:1. Moreover, the new structure is free from ITO patterning or protrusion on the color‐filter side, which makes the fabrication process simple and low cost.     

A novel iterative shape from focus algorithm based on combinatorial optimization

Shape from focus (SFF) is a technique to estimate the depth and 3D shape of an object from a sequence of images obtained at different focus settings. In this paper, the SFF is presented as a combinatorial optimization problem. The proposed algorithm tries to find the combination of pixel frames which produces maximum focus measure computed over pixels lying on those frames. To reduce the high computational complexity, a local search method is proposed. After the estimate of the initial depth map solution of an object, the neighborhood is defined, and an intermediate image volume is generated from the neighborhood. The updated depth map solution is found from the intermediate image volume. This update process of the depth map solution continues until the amount of improvement is negligible. The results of the proposed SFF algorithm have shown significant improvements in both the accuracy of the depth map estimation and the computational complexity, with respect to the existing SFF methods.     

Methodology to design the interfaces in SiC/Al composites

A methodology to control interfacial microstructures, while suppressing formation of Al₄C₃ in wrought Al alloy composites reinforced with SiC, was demonstrated. Thermodynamic calculations were carried out to elucidate how one can select process parameters in terms of alloy composition and fabrication temperature to obtain intended interfaces. Experimental verifications were conducted using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to validate calculated results. The reaction mechanisms for forming various interfaces were identified both theoretically and experimentally. Evaluations of the interfacial bonding strengths and interfacial stability at elevated temperatures were also carried out for various interface types.